<VV> Buffalo's legacy

[John Kepler]

Not to PO the moderators with another "bothersome" convention comment, but I
think the folks that did the Buffalo Convention were far more sinned against
than sinning.  I have some advantages/disadvantages in this regard over many
of you....I know Buffalo, and as soon as I saw where the Convention was
being held, I knew it was going to have a VERY high "Charlie-Foxtrot"
potential, and planned accordingly (I wouldn't stay at the Adam's Mark on
the Firm's expense account, and certainly would NOT on my own nickel!).
What's more, the Convention organizers knew it was going to be a problem as
well, and tried mightily to work around the limitations that the CORSA
selection criteria sorta forced on them. The CORSA site selection criteria
and the "rigidity" thereof is going to mean that some locales are going to
"fit" better and require less "finessing" than others...Buffalo was a tough
fit based on CORSA's intransigence...and in my own never humble opinion, a
little more flexibility by CORSA would have made for a MUCH better outcome,
but that and a buck will get you a cheap cup of coffee.  Buffalo is also a
"tough town" to do ANY business in (which is one reason so little of it is
left!), a fact I'm VERY well acquainted with, "Up close and personal!", and
Downtown is best typified by the term, "You can't get there from here!".  If
you have NO idea what the group, all of them volunteers, had to do, the
problems that they DID overcome very adroitly to get the event off the
ground in the first place, then you can continue to carp and get your boxers
in a bunch about what is basically trivia...like dead yeast in a good beer!
Given the inherent problems with the set-up going in.....the folks in
Buffalo did a commendable job.  I know I enjoyed myself...so did my son.

JEK